New trail opens at Olivenhain Dam

NED RANDOLPH - Staff Writer

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ENCINITAS -- Officials of Olivenhain Municipal Water District
opened a mile-long trail Saturday that overlooks the 318-foot-tall
Olivenhain Dam and links up to a 15-mile trail system in the Elfin
Forest Recreational Reserve.

The new section of trail will also provide future links to the
county's Master Trails Program and Escondido Ranch Reserve,
according to district officials.

The Cielo Link Trail, designed with input from residents,
mountain bikers and equestrians, goes along the rim of the former
box canyon, which was dammed as part of a project to provide
emergency water storage for San Diego County. The dam was completed
in 2003.

"When the EIR was certified and construction (on the dam)
started, the EIR morphed into the BSP, or what I call the 'book of
solemn promises,'" said Susan Varty, the vice president of
Olivenhain's board of directors. "Today, we have finished every
promise from that book."

The trail, which is two miles round-trip, allows access to the
area near the dam, which is otherwise restricted and monitored with
hidden cameras 24 hours a day.

The trail was built in one month with the help of the rangers,
conservation corps members and volunteers. Its slope is steep,
rising 800 feet in a quarter mile, said John Holloway, director of
the San Diego Mountain Biking Association, which helped flag the
trail.

"I tried riding up it," he said. "Even for experienced people
it's a technical ride. Mostly because of the ground surface."

The slippery gravel will settle over time, he said.

The trail is difficult, partly because it covers an existing
pipeline corridor -- an emergency surge-line for backflow from the
dam and its reservoir, said Joey Randall, the Parks Department
supervisor.

"So we were able to minimize the habitat loss," he said. "With
the switchbacks and climbing turns, it ramps up the difficulty
level."

That was not a problem for horseback rider Nancy Reed.

"What's fun about this is that it's an advanced trail," said
Reed, a local resident. "A horse has to be trained to know where
their feet are and to balance the rider over uneven terrain. If you
don't have tough trails, you can't teach your horse to walk tough
trails."

Reed led a pack of riders along the new trail Saturday, over the
ridgeline and past the dam. She said the area is losing its trails
to development and high-density subdivisions.

"We are always losing trails," she said. "Developers are the No.
1 enemy to trails."

The water district serves 28,000 households over 48 square miles
in portions of Encinitas, Carlsbad, San Diego, Solana Beach and San
Marcos.

The nearly 900-acre Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve is owned
by the Olivenhain Municipal Water District and San Diego County
Water Authority, which financed most of the dam construction.

The reserve was established to mitigate habitat loss created by
the dam. Park rangers, paid by the water district, offer guided
group tours and student programs to promote environmental awareness
and preservation of local watersheds.

San Diego County imports 95 percent of its drinking water. The
Olivenhain Reservoir can provide water during an emergency such as
an earthquake along the Elsinore Fault or a drought, said
Olivenhain General Manager David McCollom.

The reservoir stores enough water to supply San Diego County for
60 days. It will soon be linked to Lake Hodges through a 1 1/4-mile
pipeline under Mount Israel to provide more emergency drinking
water and allow the county to better manage the lake's watershed by
funneling overflow into the dam.

Lake Hodges was built in 1918 to bring a water supply to the
area. Over the last 50 years, its level has varied widely. The
ability to pump water back and forth between Lake Hodges and the
Olivenhain Reservoir will prevent future spills and allow
regulation of the water level, Water Authority officials have
said.

At the base of the Olivenhain dam, a water treatment plan uses
membrane filters to collect parasites and any organic matter
without releasing chemical or waste materials. It's the
highest-rated treatment plant in the state, McCollom said.

The water district is also partnering with the Escondido Creek
Conservancy to raise $600,000 to build an interpretive center in
the recreational reserve.